Egypt

After a full day of traveling on buses and negotiating our way from Tel Aviv, we made it to our hostel in Cairo late at night. The next morning we woke up to a true call of prayer from a nearby mosque. The sound booming from the nearby minarets competed with the chaotic symphony of car horns down below. We were immediately met by Zach’s friend (now our friend too J) Nesrine, who whisked us off for a “true Egyptian Breakfast.” Around the corner from our hostel, we went to a typical Egyptian restaurant where we at the best falafel I have had so far, a few different types of egg and cheese dishes, ful ( a refried fava bean paste/stew that is like fuel for your stomach), and lots of great pita. After our huge breakfast, we walked over to the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, which meant crossing a few major streets Cairo.

A quick note about crossing the streets in Crazy, Cramped, Congested, You are also Congested, CAIRO! Imagine the advanced level of Frogger or Pacman, except you are actually in the game. There are no lights, no traffic rules, and no police. There are cars everywhere, going in every direction, honking their horns with a passion and vengeance like their life depends on it, paying no attention to the fact that there are cars coming in every direction on a 2 way street that has become 4 or more lanes of traffic. This is actually an understatement of how crazy it really is, but as far as pedestrian crossing rules go, there are none! When you cross the street in Cairo, the best mentality to have is that of a gazelle crossing the River Nile in Sub-Saharan Africa (as I have observed on IMAX films at the science museum and not in person). If you want to survive, you have to cross towards the center of the pack and stay right on the heels of the person in front of you, so that you literally don’t allow any room for problems to occur in front of you. Next, you want to have one hand out arched to your side as a pretend shield/first line of impact/a comfort. As crazy as it was to cross, I was laughing the whole time at the disorder, it was a nervous laugh, but I was laughing.

The Egyptian Museum was just as Zach had originally described, like being in Indiana Jones. There are relics everywhere, in every corner. It is truly amazing and overwhelming. This museum is so big and has so much stuff that if you spent one minute in every exhibit it would take you 9 months to see it all! The stuff we are looking at is between 5000 and 3000 years old (at least). We learned so much background information about Upper and Lower Egypt, the joining on the through areas throughout the dynasties of the kings, the crowns they wore, etc. etc. That was just the first level! On the second level, the museum is concentrated on the artifacts found in the untouched tomb of King Tut. I always knew that Howard Carter found his tomb untouched, and sort of by accident, but I really did not know the importance of the find. Apparently, King Tut was not a very significant king (he only ruled for 10 years and was 19 when he died), but the riches he was buried with seemed to state otherwise. Everything considered one of his personal processions in his life was buried with him in one of his 4 burial chambers. Beds, jewelry, toys, dinnerware, servants (statues of them), etc. etc. were buried in his chambers to accompany him in the afterlife, so just imagine what a really significant Pharaoh’s tomb must have held! Many of the tombs were raided or destroyed so finding one intact was a very special thing. The 3 covers of King Tut’s sarcophagus were exquisite because they were solid gold, covered in jewels and stones. Also, his mummy was contained in about 10 different containers of gold, covered in hieroglyphics. Seeing those side by side was amazing. JJ and I also ventured into the royal mummy room, where we were actually able to see about 10 original mummified bodies of some of the greatest Egyptian Pharaohs in history (Ramses 2, Hashpetut). It was really creepy and awesome at the same time. Seeing the body (with skin pretty intact, though dried out, of someone who was alive 4000 years ago is truly remarkable. After the museum we stopped for some refreshments nearby at a really cool restaurant where the chandeliers were made of green beer bottles. Nesrine ordered some delicious stuffed grape leaves and this Egyptian desert called Oh Mah that she accompanied with a story about its name from Ancient Egypt!

After saying our goodbyes to Nesrine for the evening, we headed back over to the hostel to book the rest of our adventures in Egypt and then for a quick bite. We took a taxi over to Khan al Khalili market. Khan Khalili is chaos in general. The place consists of one mostly pedestrian street with numerous alley ways branching off of it. You will find any souvenir from Egypt that you could even dream up there. No prices are marked and it is understood amongst all people there that bargaining tooth and nail is the only way to do business. JJ and I walked through taking in the sights and sounds, then tried our hand at haggling in Arabic.

The next day, we took a taxi over to Nesrine’s house where she served us an excellent Egyptian breakfast) before we headed over to the pyramids in Giza. Nesrine gave us great advice, had us taste more incredible food, gave us some Turkish coffee, and sent us on our way. We took another taxi over to Giza and on the way some man actually jumped in front of the car, as it was moving at 20 miles/hr. Yes, this really happened. He somehow did not get run over/hit by our driver because they are very fast at breaking in Egypt, he quickly ran around to the driver’s side and spoke some quick Arabic, then jumped into the passenger seat of the taxi to speak with us. Now, immediately JJ and I figured something shady was happening, so we switched to speaking Spanish! The guy was trying to sell JJ and I some weird sounding camel/donkey ride to the pyramids insisting that he would save us money. However, he quickly realized that he would not be able to communicate as well with us in Spanish, so he eventually got out of the car. JJ and I were in shock with the hoards of men we then noticed carrying out this scam on the way to the pyramids. Although, for almost as long as the pyramids have been standing, tourists have been coming to Egypt to see them, probably presented with a variety of the same tourist scams were trying to avoid.

Seeing the first glimpse of the pyramids as we drove up in the taxi was breathtaking. I had to pinch myself to realize I was actually in front of the Great Pyramids. We bought our tickets to go walking around the Giza Plateau and to walk into (crawl into) the tomb inside the largest pyramid, built by/for the Pharaoh Khufu (from the first dynasty of Kings). We spent about an hour walking all around the Giza Plateau, getting close to the Pyramids and then backing away, trying to take in their size. The blocks of limestone they are made up of are really huge, it is almost difficult to imagine how much labor it would have taken to build them. How many slaves it must have taken? How many people must have been involved and lost their lives, just to build tombs? Crazy. We then took turns walking up through the pyramid in the small tunnel that led up to the tomb. I really had a mental battle with my claustrophobia to be able to do this, but JJ convinced me, and once inside the tomb, I observed an extremely hot yoga meditation session happening and got out as fast as possible. I did it and it was definitely worth the once in a life time chance of walking up through the Great Pyramid! The Sphinx was on the edge of the complex and we enjoyed walking up to that as well. My favorite part was its paws, just massive. Before we left the complex, we visited the Solar Boat museum that housed the Pharaoh Khufu’s boat from almost 5000 years ago! Although it was never actually sailed, it was buried next to the pyramid so that the King would be able to use it in the afterlife. I really enjoyed the museum partly because it was air conditioned and partly because the boat was just incredible! It is the oldest assembled boat in the world and it was truly massive. Nesrine said that the ancient Egyptians used to make these boats for the Pharaohs as easy as IKEA furniture to assemble, so the Pharaoh’s would have no problem with putting them together in the afterlife. After gazing and gawking at the Pyramids for the better part of the day, we went back to Nesrine’s “hood” to meet her for dinner. She took us to a local Kosherie restaurant. Kosherie could be considered the national Egyptian dish and is surprisingly made of a combination of sautéed noodles and rices, covered with lentils, a tomato sauce, and topped with thin fried onions, garbanzo beans, and a garlic sauce……mmmmmmmmm!

After dinner, we headed back to our hostel to get ready for our Night Train all the way to Aswan, Egypt. We boarded the train and tried to act like contortionists for the better part of the night. I think a video of us trying to sleep on the train would have been actually funny enough to make some sales. In the morning we started talking to a really nice couple across from us. We compared travel stories and had some good laughs about our adventures and what we were expecting in the less traveled parts of Egypt. When we arrived in Aswan (14 hours later!), we consumed our second portion of Kosherie and were whisked away to board a motor boat to explore Philae Temple. This temple was originally on a different island in the Nile River, but after dams were built, it was covered in water until people petitioned to have all 57,000 pieces carried over to a nearby island and reconstructed! We learned the Ancient Egyptian legend of the temple and admired all of the hieroglyphics. Since this was our first temple visit in upper Egypt we were awestruck that the detail was complete from floor to ceiling.

Later that evening, we boarded a Felucca with plans to spend the night sailing on the Nile. We were soon joined by some Austrian brothers. The felucca was something of a spectacle complete with a pirate captain and crew, Bob Marley/Che Guevara Flags, and dirtiness (even for us!). We had a pleasant sail across the river and back until our “captian” decided to post up for the evening behind the exhaust of some cruise boat so that he could make a beer run. Needless to say, we were not pleased, but thankful for the place to lie down and passed out. We woke up the next morning covered in mosquito bites, but well rested compared to our train ride the night before. From the side of the river where the Felucca had parked, we took a mini bus on our way to Luxor to Kom Ombo and Edfu Temples. Both of these temples were interesting for different reasons, but we did not have a guide for these sites, so we just wandered around and tried to understand what purpose the structures served to the ancient Egyptians. Kom Mombo was the sacred temple of crocodiles and Edfu was a temple of dedication to the Egyptian God Horus. My favorite thing at both of these temples was places where the ancient people wrote down their recipes and charted time. I found their detail really interesting and important for daily functions in ancient times.

Once we arrived in Luxor, we were granted a private guide to see Karnak Temples and Luxor Temple due to the sketchiness of the felucca arrangement. We were very happy with this and our guide for the rest of the afternoon, Peter, was very interested in telling us the history of the East Nile sites, the significance of the hieroglyphics, and answering my many questions. The Karnak Temples compromised a HUGE area in Luxor and were by far the most impressive sight we visited! The columns, detail, and history of this place were enough to make my head spin. By this point, I could really tell the significant difference in writing style, architecture, and story line from the first dynasty of Ancient Egypt up to the third dynasty. One interesting thing at Karnak Temples was the mark of Ramses the 2^nd. He was known for stealing monuments that other pharaohs had erected and putting his name on them. A prime example here was a statue of King Tut with Ramses 2^nd’s name on it (he had scratched out the original inscription). JJ and I also liked the sacred scarab statue across from the Sacred Late. Legend has it that is you make a wish and walk around the scarab 7 times, your wish will be granted. We had fun racing around the statue until it was time to head to Luxor Temple.

At Luxor, we witnessed more impressive feats of the Ancient Egyptians in the third dynasty. We saw tremendous statues of the Egyptian gods and admired the fact that every year in ancient times a two week festival would be held at Luxor Temple. In the hieroglyphics we could see lots of scenes of the party, from the belly dancers to the food sacrifices. My favorite part of Luxor temple was the innermost shrine, erected by Alexander the Great. The Romans were very wise in their conquest of the Egyptian people and depicted themselves just as the Pharaohs did, as the sons and daughters of the Gods (with the apparent and divine right to rule the people and collect their taxes). So in this area of Luxor Temple, Alexander the Great depicted himself as a pharaoh with the right to have power of over the people from the Gods themselves, earning his place in the hearts of the Egyptian people.

After finding a nearby Kosherie, we went to sleep and woke up again the next morning for our tour of the last four major sights we would see of the West Bank in Luxor. We began at the ruins of Colossi of Memnon, all that remains of the enormous temple is two gigantic statues. Next, we visited the Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir al Bahri). Hatshepsut is the most famous Egyptian queen because she ruled the people with the power of a Pharaoh and also depicted herself like one in hieroglyphics. She sent her step-son off to military school so that she could be in power, and when he returned, he tried to erase her from ever having ruled the people of Egypt. In her own temple, there are many images where she has actually been deleted from the stone with a chisel. Although her own step-son attempted to destroy the temple she built, it was still in fantastic condition and much of the alabaster hieroglyphics still held their original colors (fantastic!). From here, we visited the Valley of the Kings. Instead of building huge pyramids as tombs, the Pharaohs of the third dynasty wised up and had themselves buried in the sides of mountains that resembled pyramids in order to keep their treasures and bodies hidden (this way, they believed their bodies and all of their stuff would make it safely to the afterlife. We entered several of the uncovered Pharaoh’s tombs. Archeologists are constantly excavating this area and finding more and more tombs here. The hieroglyphics and colors of paint were the best preserved in there tombs out of all the sites we visited in Egypt. Words can’t describe the detail of these tombs and what they must have contained before they were sealed. The last sight of the day was Valley of the Queens, which was a little disappointing after the grandeur of the tombs in Valley of the Kings, although the area is less geologically stable.

We headed back to Cairo on another night train and arrived at about 5:30 in the morning. JJ somehow miraculously guided us to the hostel where we slept for a few hours before heading out again. We made our way via metro to Coptic Cairo where we visited the Hanging Church. This church received its name because it was build literally right on top of an ancient Roman fortress, simply over some wood beams. Since this area has recently been heavily excavated, you are now able to see that you are actually on top of a gigantic fortress from inside the church. Next stop was the Ben Ezra synagogue. It was very small, but incredibly well preserved and just sitting inside of it made me feel an overwhelming sense of history. We enjoyed listening to a tour guide nearby and from there, made our way to two historic mosques in Muslim Cairo. The first mosque was erected around 500 AD and JJ and I were just in time to observe the noontime call to prayer. The next mosque, Ibn Tulun, was even older, but had been recently restored. From this mosque we walked past others, many many minarets, and made our way through the backstreets of Muslim Cairo to the Khan al Khalili Market again. For dinner, we made our way over to Nesrine’s home with the only flowers we could find in downtown. Nesrine ordered a feast of seafood and invited over her family who Zach and Jennifer had also met while they were in Cairo a year and a half before. The food was delicious and the company was fantastic. We really enjoyed ourselves in Egypt and we were so thankful for having Nesrine there for suggestions and to show us around.